Sun Books

Sun Books
Status	Inactive
Founded	1965
Founders	Cultural Studies; Politics; etc.
Fiction genres	Literary fiction; Poetry

Sun Books was an Australian publisher of

Penguin Australia who, having grown frustrated by the latter's tepid interest in home-grown content, had resigned in order to establish the imprint, envisioned as a publisher of “quality paperbacks for the sophisticated Australian reader”,^[1] and a platform for local literary talent.^[2] Prior to its acquisition by Macmillan in 1981, Sun had published over 330 titles, of which 187 were first editions.^[1]

Sun’s non-fiction collection was wide-ranging, encompassing

colonial Australia, The Tyranny of Distance^[4] first published by Sun in 1966, and still in publication by 2001 ^[5]

Sun’s literary ventures included the acquisition (and subsequent repeated reissue) of Thomas Keneally’s Miles Franklin Award-winning Bring Larks and Heroes, Christina Stead’s House of All Nations, as well as Australian verse, including works by Judith Wright, and the transgressive Drug Poems of Michael Dransfield.

A selection of Sun’s epochal cover designs (including those by Brian Sandgrove, who also adapted the publisher’s colophon from Lawrence Daws’ reproduction of a cave painting of the Wandjina) are preserved and curated online by the Australian Book Designers Association,^[6] and in print in Paperback Pioneers: Sun Books 1965–8 by Dominic Hostede.^[7]

Book series

Sun Academy Series^[8]
Sun Books Australian Crime Fiction Series^[9]
Sun Cookery Series^[10]
Sun Poetry Series^[11]
Three Colonial Poets^[12]

References

^ ^a ^b "Re:collection | Sun Books". recollection.com.au.
^ "Melbourne's Sun Books | State Library Victoria". www.slv.vic.gov.au.
^ Sun Books: An exhibition of Sun Books publications from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection: 1 June 2005 - 31 August 2005, monash.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ "Distance and destiny". Inside Story. 28 July 2016.
^ "The Tyranny of Distance - Pan Macmillan AU". Pan Macmillan Australia.
^ "Re:collection and Sun Books". Australian Book Designers Association. 19 June 2017.
^ Dominic Hofstede; Warren Taylor (27 November 2017). "Paperback pioneers : Sun Books (1965-81)". Brian Sadgrove (artist). [Melbourne] : [Re:collection] – via Trove.
^ Sun Academy Series (Sun Books) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
^ The Interrupted Man, worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ se:Sun Cookery Series, worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ se:Sun Poetry Series, worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ se:Three Colonial Poets, worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

[auto-1] "Re:collection | Sun Books". recollection.com.au.

[2] "Melbourne's Sun Books | State Library Victoria". www.slv.vic.gov.au.

[3] Sun Books: An exhibition of Sun Books publications from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection: 1 June 2005 - 31 August 2005, monash.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

[4] "Distance and destiny". Inside Story. 28 July 2016.

[5] "The Tyranny of Distance - Pan Macmillan AU". Pan Macmillan Australia.

[6] "Re:collection and Sun Books". Australian Book Designers Association. 19 June 2017.

[7] Dominic Hofstede; Warren Taylor (27 November 2017). "Paperback pioneers : Sun Books (1965-81)". Brian Sadgrove (artist). [Melbourne] : [Re:collection] – via Trove.

[8] Sun Academy Series (Sun Books) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 22 August 2023.

[9] The Interrupted Man, worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

[10] se:Sun Cookery Series, worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

[11] se:Sun Poetry Series, worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

[12] se:Three Colonial Poets, worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

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